Fear and Change
by selenicsoulmates
Summary: "But some, Korra learns, are simply unaccustomed to change." Book 3 headcanon. Makorra, if you squint.


**I just want Book 3 so this happened? It's not really good but whatever. **

**There's some Makorra in here 'cus I can't help myself I guess. **

* * *

There's been too many wars in such little time.

It begins to brew again in Republic City, and Korra knows. Peace is a limited thing, after all – it's simply naïve to think that one city could actually hold onto it.

It starts downtown, where vines twist through territory it doesn't belong, and an already agitated Red Monsoon bends fast at a spirit minding its own business. Ice slices against the floating animal's arm, and it rounds back with a vengeance. Before long, three waterbenders are injured – one chronically so, two spirits are forced to abandon the city, and a store was destroyed.

The news reaches the radios and the papers in little time, and the citizens blame their Avatar once again.

She isn't surprised in the least. But she can't fight off the sense of failure.

"People aren't accustomed to change," Tenzin reminds her. Korra's eyes don't leave the city as half of her body guards itself up under the temple's gazebo. "People are afraid of it."

She's silent, letting the words sink in. Fear and change – the driving points to negative energy that she feels circulates even farther than Republic City. If no one can accept the new age, "Was leaving the portals open a mistake?"

Korra turns to face her mentor – old with age, but more with the stress the world brings. The world is heavy on his shoulders, a burden Korra understands more than most. "I thought after Harmonic Convergence, after ten thousand years of separation, people would've been ready for change."

He offers a sad smile. "With change comes unfamiliar responsibility that even we may not be able to handle."

Tenzin holds her shoulders with steady hands. "But violence will not help ease change."

~.~

It's gotten worse.

Korra's intervened in the battles as much as she could (although, entering the Avatar State managed to further anger the spirits and citizens, thinking it a threat), and stated her reasoning to those who refused to live amongst spirits. Police have tried negotiating as well, but the city's been falling apart at the seams – their interference only brings more fighting. A proud settlement of peace and prosperity that the great Avatar Aang had built, and Korra's managed to ruin it in a about a year's time.

Some citizens have evacuated. Some protest the police and the Avatar herself. Many attack the Spirits, and fights grow. Injuries toll up. Peacetime diminishes to nothing but a memory.

A fight brews in the boroughs and Korra has had enough of the fighting. She stands in between the mass of angered spirits and relentless triad members.

"Get out of the way, Avatar!" A spirit spits.

"You brought these monsters into our city!" An Agni Kai member snaps, blaming her, angry flames licking at his closed fists.

Korra's resolve cracks, "This city is meant as a beacon of hope for everyone! That now includes the spirits that inhabit it!"

"No one wanted this!" Another citizen argues. Someone from the crowd of benders raises his arms as if ready to bend at Korra until she pushes him back with a short blast of air, the calmest solution she can muster.

It angers them further.

A Red Monsoon whips a tail of water straight for her arm, and she barely misses the attack by a few stray hairs. She rolls, hears a shot of flames overhead, and the sounds of screams.

_"Violence will not help ease change."_

The two sides sprint forward, benders fighting off spirits. Rocks spiral, flames engulf the air, people and spirits fall alike.

She's scratched by the very leopard spirit she tries to defend, and Viper of the Triple Threats sends his own shots of sharp icicles toward her abdomen, tearing and breaking the surface of skin on the side when she tries to dodge.

Korra breathes heavily, knocking back spirits and benders with torrents of air, sending up rock walls to block their way, but they keep coming back for more.

She's failing. Another battle is lost to those who refuse to accept change. She's never thought about giving up – never wanted to – but she's fresh out of ideas and full of fresh wounds.

She hears the sounds of an engine over the battle, and her attention reigns. A scarf flitters fast in the torrent of air as the motorcycle drives closer, light from the front engulfing the fight.

His left hand releases the handle bars to stretch outward. He's coming faster and faster, and Korra – mind reeling and racing as hastily as the cycle's tires, reaches her left arm out. Mako catches her wrist as soon as he zooms past her, pulling her feet up off the ground and along the wind. He pulls it backwards and Korra twists her body mid-air, her leg moving up and over the seat. She lands gauchely behind him with a short groan, her arms wrapping around his torso in a vice-like grip.

Mako twists the cycle to the side, braking and placing his foot on the far side to balance it out. They both watch the spirits and triads twist their attention from each other to them. Then the surprised looks turn acidic, and the fires reignite, and suddenly, a bender shoots a hot ball of flames toward the bike. Mako sends his own flame to block the attack. Smoke fills the streets, but Korra can still make out the mass of colors gliding closer from behind it. She speaks the firebender's name uneasily to get him to notice, and Mako does, quickly revving the engine and kicking off the ground before the spirits clear through the smoke.

Buildings mesh together the faster he goes, away from the borough and towards the outskirts of the city. Korra turns to check behind them, but only notices a small group of children in tattered clothes watch them speed off. She bites her lip and turns back to watch the buildings get smaller and smaller, and then they cross over a golden bridge, uninhabited from pedestrians or satomobiles. The water glistens underneath it, flittering and reflecting the moon above in the sky. It's peaceful – something Korra has lost the meaning to long ago.

Quickly, the city disappears behind them, and the wheels spin up on a cracked road twisting and turning through the trees. The trees still drip from the early downpour, and Mako skids right past a deep puddle. Farther down the road, Korra realizes they're headed toward the mountains.

"Bolin and Asami are at the abandoned airbase," Mako says over the noise of the motorcycle. He turns his head slightly to look at Korra sagging against him, then quickly turns back to the dirt road. "The vines didn't reach that far, so we'll be safe. We'll make a plan once we get settled."

She nods against his back, her cheek resting between his shoulder blades. Her grip on him tightens and she lets sleep cloud her vision until she finally shuts her eyes. She's tired. Spent. Defeated.

Republic City is no longer home.


End file.
